Making (describing) a campus tour - advice please
Well, here's goes my 'stupid' beginners question...
I am making a web tour of our university's campus - my question is about how to make a primarily 'visual' reference useful for those that might suffer from varying degrees of visual imparedness.
I am already aware and working on what I will do for those with colour related problems - but for those that have more severe sight issues the question is....How do you DESCRIBE a map?
As well as suitable long descriptions I thought of adding a link to AUDIO descriptions, giving a flavour or more emotive description of the locations...
But I am at a loss as to exactly what would be useful...
Please can I ask for some advice? Is the audio description idea a good one - and if so, what kind of information about geographic and archetectural locations are useful.
Again - I apologise for my ignorance in this matter.
Steve
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Not a stupid question at all Steve, in fact a very interesting one.
I like your idea for audio description - how brilliant would it be for a blind user to download that description to a device and play it back when actually there!
Regarding the long description, here's what RNIB have to say on their page about alt text:
| RNIB wrote: |
| Complex images are images whose full meaning cannot be adequately described in a short phrase or sentence. This may include graphs, charts and maps.
A brief name or description should be given in the ALT text, and a longer description of the content of the image given elsewhere. There are a variety of ways in which this can be achieved. A text description can be given on the same page, or linked to, from the image or the page. The ALT text for the image could then be "Office layout, see description below". LONGDESC can also be used but note that not all browsers use the "longdesc" attribute. Finally, a "D" link can be used. We recommend providing a text description on the page itself, as this will be useful for all users and not just those with access technology. |
I think the last point is especially interesting.
Hope that helps for a start. I'll put out a call on Twitter for other people's thoughts.
PS welcome to the form
_________________
James Coltham - Local gov web manager by day, web and accessibility blogger at lunchtime, freelancer by night. Tweets at @prettysimple.
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Thanks for the reply James -
I guess my problem is that the things I might find useful in a description - as a fully sighted person - *might* be completely useless to someone with a sevre visual diability...
For example, in describing the builings on the campus - say, the library - I might say:
"The library on our campus is a seven story building 100 yards north from the reception on the left."
I am guessing that that would be of almost no use whatsoever! (Excuse me if I sound patronizing, I don't mean to be - I syncerely just don't know!)
So what kind of desriptive phrases would be most useful in describing a physical location or building to a partially sighted or blind person? ALso - what is teh best way to communicate distances and directions?
I am very keen on the idea of an audio tour track as well as specific audio 'notes' about specific locations. So getting the right script would be very importatnt.
Also, the point you raise about the long description is very interesting.
Thank you for your help.
Steve
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